everything you need to know to ask for a year-end raise

by Alison Green on December 21, 2015

If you’re hoping that the new year will bring you a new salary, time is running out for you to make a case to your employer for a year-end raise. Here’s everything you need to know about raises, including how to ask for one, how much to expect, and what to do if your performance hasn’t been great this year.

Is employer required to give you a raise? No law requires employers to give raises. If you have a contract or a union agreement that specifies particular raises at particular times, your employer is bound by that, but otherwise it’s purely up to your employer’s own discretion.

What if your employer normally does year-end raises but you still haven’t heard anything about getting one? If you really just want to know whether your employer is doing company-wide raises this year, you could just ask that (“Does the company plan to do year-end salary increases like it has in past years?”). But the stronger move is to put together a case for a raise for yourself and present that to your manager. In fact, in general it’s smart not to passively wait for your employer to offer you a raise, but instead to proactively open the conversation.

What’s the best way to make the case for a raise, or for a higher raise than what’s initially offered? First, spend some time reflecting on your achievements in the last year and the impact you’ve had on your team and organization. What have you received especially positive feedback about? What results are you most proud of? Where have you made the biggest impact? Then, put together a short case for why you’re now contributing at a higher level than when your salary was last set.

How do you kick off a conversation about a raise? Be straightforward! You might simply say something like: “I’ve really appreciated the chance to take on new responsibilities and more challenging work over the last year, like projects X and Y. In light of accomplishments like A and B, I’d like to talk about adjusting my salary as we go into next year to reflect this higher level of contribution.”

What kind of raise is reasonable to expect? It depends on your company norms. Some companies only do cost-of-living increases that are pegged to inflation or have fairly rigid schedules that control how much your pay will go up each year. Others give managers one pool of money for raises and leave it to them to figure out how to distribute among their teams. Some companies do small percentage increases of 1-3% (in fact, 3% is the national average raise). Others are more generous, sometimes significantly so. It can be helpful to talk to colleagues to get a sense of how your company approaches salary increases so that you can calibrate your expectations and have an idea what parameters might be possible.

Can you still ask for a year-end raise if your performance hasn’t been strong this year? If you’re not performing well and you’ve had a lot of critical feedback from your boss – and especially if you had a mediocre or worse performance evaluation – you probably shouldn’t be asking for a raise right now. Raises are recognition that you’ve been contributing at a higher level than when your salary was last set. If you’re not meeting expectations at your current level, you’re not in a position to make a convincing case for raising your salary. You’d want to have about a year of high-level performance before you could credibly ask to have your salary increased.

What if you were promised a raise but it hasn’t shown up in your paycheck? First, make sure that you know when the raise is supposed to be effective. For example, it’s pretty common for year-end raises not to go into effect until January 1. But if you know that you should have seen it by now, then before the next payroll is next run, say this to your boss: “I haven’t see my salary increase show up on my paycheck yet. Is there someone I can talk to in payroll to make sure they have everything they need to get it on my next check?”

I originally published this at U.S. News & World Report.

You may also like:
{ 32 comments }

vote for the worst boss of 2015

by Alison Green on December 21, 2015

We’ve read about plenty of bad bosses this year, and now it’s time to vote on the worst one of the whole year.

We’ll crown the worst boss of the year next week, based on your votes … so please vote below. (Voting ends at 11:59 p.m. Sunday night.)

You may also like:
{ 139 comments }

can I bring a crib sheet into interviews to help me answer questions?

by Alison Green on December 21, 2015

A reader writes:

I work in a sector where it is common to ask competency questions in interviews (apologies for being vague, but if I stated my work area you’d probably respond with “oh yeah, those guys probably DO get a lot of competency questions”). These range from informal “how would you handle this situation?” discussions to “please take us through the X process” to full-on sheets of exam questions with mark schemes.

Needless to say I loathe the things.

After one too many interviews where I “dried” on questions that I’d have answered off the cuff if I were at my desk, I started putting together a quick-reference sheet of common scenarios. I now tuck this into my notepad when going into an interview. I’ve also started keeping a record of the types of questions that get asked, and over the last five or so years I’ve built up a good little two-page reference document.

When someone asks something like “please take us through the X process,” I can certainly name the steps, but I would struggle to remember in an interview things like the exact time that one has to complete a particular step, or that kind of detail, and that’s on my notes sheet.

My confidence in interviews has soared since I started doing this. I’ve still been blindsided a few times, but when that happens I look up the answers after the interview and add them in for the next one. Often the sheet sits happily untouched inside my document folder for the whole interview, but if I need to refer to it I am usually not shy about glancing down and doing so. I figure it’s better to be prepared than to stare blankly at the interview panel and say “Er, sorry, let me think about that for a minute…”

Reactions from interviewers have varied from raised eyebrows to total indifference. But recently I got my first bad reaction. I interviewed for a post that was a really good match and I felt I had a solid shot at it. I was disappointed when I didn’t get it, and the feedback specifically said that I wasn’t offered the job because I should not have to “look something up” on material I’d brought with me.

Does it actually reflect badly on me as a candidate to have written myself something to refer to in an interview? I could honestly answer any competency question with “well, speaking as a senior X, my first move would be to look up current practice in that area,” and I assure you I and my colleagues are never far from a reference manual in the real world!

We work in a sector full of complicated time-specific procedures that change on a regular basis – am I really going to have to memorize the full set of names, dates and addresses in a way I’d never do outside an interview? Are there better ways to handle this problem?

I think you’ve got to stop consulting the notes.

Rightly or wrongly, your interviewers are asking these questions because they want to see how you answer them off the top of your head. If they wanted to see how you’d respond with time to look up the answers, they’d ask them in a different format — in an context where you could consult outside materials, or in a take-home exercise, or so forth. But that’s not what they’re doing; they’re asking them in a conversational interview, and that signals that they want a conversational answer, not one that you pull from prepared materials.

They’re not asking “how would you find this answer?” They’re asking “what is this answer?” And when you consult written materials for the answer, they have no way of knowing what your actual knowledge on the topic is. For all they know, someone else could have researched the topic and handed you those papers.

I totally hear you that in the real world, you’d look up this kind of question. But that just doesn’t translate into the context you’re encountering in interviews. They’re asking what you know on a topic, and you’ve got to answer in that spirit. They presumably know your field and share your knowledge that it’s complicated and changes regularly … but they’re asking anyway, and so those are the rules you’ve got to play by. (Meanwhile, though, you should assume that they’re taking that into account.)

I do get that coming in with these sorts of notes is a confidence-booster, but confidence isn’t the only thing that matters in interviews. In this case, the notes are making you come across as someone who doesn’t know or doesn’t care about adhering to professional norms, and it’s probably raising questions about your actual knowledge base.

And while I normally discourage people from putting too much weight on a single piece of feedback from a single interviewer (since interviewers can have preferences and quirks that aren’t representative of most other interviewers), in this case I think you need to listen to it. And actually, it doesn’t really sound like the person who gave you the feedback was the first bad reaction; I’d put those raised eyebrows that you noticed from other interviewers in the “don’t do this” bucket too.

For what it’s worth, there are times when it’s appropriate to consult notes during an interview. It’s okay to bring in short bulleted notes to jog your memory and make sure you cover the points you want to cover (although you really want to use them judiciously; it would be weird if you consulted them for every question or for basic elements of your job history that you’d normally be expected to remember on your own, like what type of work a particular job entailed). And it’s smart to bring a list of your own questions so that you remember everything that you want to ask (just like a good interviewer will usually have too).

But with the sort of questions you’re talking about, they’re looking for extemporaneous answers, and that’s what you’ve got to give them.

You may also like:
{ 110 comments }

boss keeps taking holiday gifts meant for the office, companies giving out work schedules to spouses, and more

by Alison Green on December 21, 2015

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…

1. Our boss keeps taking holiday gifts meant for the whole office

I work for a small office of 14 employees. Every holiday season, certain companies we deal with, as well as some clients, will send in or bring gifts to the office — things like gift baskets filled with goodies, cookies, thing of that nature. The people who bring the gifts to the office will announce that the gift is for all of us for our hard work, and they are cleary addressed to our company name and staff. But, after they leave, my boss will take the basket into his office and bring it home or re-gift to someone else. This bring down office morale tremendously. Should we say anything to the boss about him taking the gifts?

Does one of you have good rapport with him? If so, that person should tell him that he’s demoralizing everyone by taking gifts clearly meant for the whole staff. If no one really has a good rapport with him, you could speak up in a group (which makes it less likely that one person will be scapegoated if he’s a jerk).

2. Recruiter hinted that I should help her find white candidates

I work for an IT consulting company. As part of my other assigned duties, I’m frequently asked to screen potential hires as well as current consultants for openings at my client site. Said client is a European company that has made a decision to outsource more of their IT services with disastrous results for one project. Because of this bad experience, the U.S. managers in this area are copping an attitude toward offshore (read India).

I dropped in on our recruiter and she asked if I would help her screen some resumes for an opening at my client, adding that she’s looking for someone like John Smith. I assume she’s wanting someone with John’s skill set. Problem is, I don’t know what his skill set is. I probe and get a non-responsive answer. I probe some more and get “Does he look like John Smith?”

Duh. She’s telling me she wants to present white guys to the client.

Fortunately for me, none of the resumes presented really had the skill set we were looking for. Two of the resumes were so poorly written that they were rejected on that basis.

I’ve worked with this recruiter for seven years, and this is the only time anything like this has happened so I’m hoping it’s a one-off event. But what if it isn’t? Got any suggestions in case it happens again?

Ick. Tell her point-blank that it’s illegal to consider race or national original in hiring decisions (sex too, if that’s part of what she was implying). For example: “Obviously we can’t consider race or national origin in hiring decisions because that’s illegal under federal law. Can you tell me more about what skill set you’re looking for?”

If it happens again, either in that conversation or in another one later, say this: “What you’re asking is against the law, and I’m really uncomfortable with the request regardless. Please tell me we don’t make hiring decisions that way.”

You might also consider reporting it to someone above her and pointing out that she’s putting the company in legal danger, as well as simply sucking at life and at hiring.

3. Companies giving out work schedules to spouses

If a wife calls her husband’s employer and asks “What hours has my husband worked this week?” to try to catch her husband in a lie, is it legal for an employer to give her the information?

There’s no law against it, but most employers have policies against it (or no official policy, but just wouldn’t do it). There are too many potential complications with giving that information out. For example, they have no way of knowing you’re really his wife versus someone else who may mean him harm. Or, maybe you are his wife but you’re currently estranged and in the process of divorcing. Or, they just don’t want to get involved in a marital spat. Regardless, smart employers don’t release this kind of information.

For what it’s worth, if you’re at the point of trying to catch him in a lie, there’s a problem no matter what it turns out his hours were this week. Focus on that instead.

4. I got a job offer in my holiday card

I am currently a temp (long-term temp work with no end date on my contract). I have been in this position for about a year and a half. I enjoy my job and the pay is excellent for being entry-level. I have expressed that I would love to be hired on as a full-time employee, and the possibility has been mentioned by my manager before.

Today we had a Christmas party during the work day, and my manager handed out gift cards to everyone in envelopes. When I opened mine, in addition to the gift card, there was an offer of employment. Don’t get me wrong, I am thrilled, but it is just so odd to me that a job offer would be considered a gift. I asked my manager if I could have the weekend to look it all over and to speak with the agency I am with before I gave a firm answer. I don’t plan on turning it down, but I have one week of vacation that I will lose when I terminate my contract so that needs to be organized. Is this weird or am I being weird about it?

It’s a little weird because a job offer is not a gift or an act of generosity; it’s a business offer that’s supposed to be of mutual benefit. That said, I wouldn’t get too hung up on that and would just take it in the spirit in which I’m sure it was intended — as good news offered in a warm, excited way.

5. My interviewer wasn’t there when I arrived for my scheduled interview

What do you do when the staffing center schedules you for a face-to-face interview with a person who is not even working on the day of the interview? When I arrived for my interview, I was asked to wait until the operations manager was done interviewing a candidate for a lumber position. I was then led to her office. I had interviewed with her in late October. She was not who I was supposed to see. She told me she would email my interviewer and that I would either receive a call to reschedule or I could come in the next day and wait for the correct interviewer to see me if she was available. I then was given a business card and told that maybe I should call her to reschedule the appointment no one even knew about. If I call the staffing center, won’t I be shooting myself in the foot?

No, the staffing center isn’t going to blame you for this; either they messed up or the person you were supposed to interview with mess up, but no one is going to think that you messed up (assuming you had the time and day correct). Contact the staffing agency, fill them in, and ask if you should reschedule through them or directly with the interviewer. (Or you could just do the latter, depending on how your staffing agency works.)

You may also like:
{ 402 comments }

3 more updates from letter-writers

by Alison Green on December 20, 2015

Here are three updates from letter-writers who had their questions answered here this year.

1. My friend is a terrible coworker

I did take your advice (and the advice and input from some of the commenters) and apologized to my friend about how I’d handled the gossip situation. I told her I was worried about her. (A little background I see didn’t make it into my original message – she’d actually spent some time in the hospital last year with still-unexplained heart failure.) She told me that she was frustrated because she’d realized that a lot of people have a near-death experience and change their whole lives, and here she was, still working at a job she didn’t even like any more.

Last month, my friend quit her job and moved cross-country to live somewhere cheaper and try to make it as a freelancer. We haven’t entirely patched up our relationship, which was more than a little strained under the circumstances, but we’re making progress. Her replacement at work is settling in nicely, and I’ve learned a valuable lesson about working with friends.

2. My job offer was pulled after I said the insurance wouldn’t meet my needs

I’m the person who had an offer pulled because of my very poor word choice and my partner wanted me to “fight” it. I took your advice, I didn’t fight it and in the future I’ll be sure to emphasize my interest in the job and be much more careful about my wording. I really appreciated readers weighing in.

Readers were right, the employer cares very little about the employees there and I learned that there had recently been assaults on the unit because of staffing issues. It’s a huge employer in the area and the only hospital, so for some jobs they have a near literal monopoly, so most people feel trapped in a low paying, crummy benefits job (I think it’s also important to note that there is no union there, not even for nurses, which I’ve never seen before and I think contributes to the low morale and bad conditions). Since it’s a big employer, I’ve met many folks who work there and all of them are unhappy. I’m glad that my (admittedly large) mistake was with an organization that wouldn’t be good to work for. I consider myself lucky in that regard.

I ended up starting a private practice. I work with an international organization that helps domestic violence victims and I’ve got a local office in town. It’s going well and I’m grateful for that.

3. I’m supposed to report on an organization that I just interviewed with (#5 at the link)

I sought out the opinion of several veteran reporters I trusted at my workplace. They both agreed that in this situation, the conflict of interest didn’t impact the reporting of the story, but might negatively impact my standing as a job candidate. I did reach out to the hiring manager get the information I needed and it was provided (begrudgingly.)

I didn’t end up getting the position. The hiring manager and the entire team never gave me any reason to think they were unprofessional or vindictive, so I’m hoping I wouldn’t have gotten it either way. But I’m sure it didn’t help in my favor. It was incredibly disappointing, but I’m going to keep trying my best to look for a new position.

The story turned out great. I got a lot of excellent feedback from the community and others at my workplace for covering the issue fairly. Thanks to everyone for their input!

You may also like:
{ 23 comments }

weekend free-for-all – December 19-20, 2015

by Alison Green on December 19, 2015

Olive on back under treeThis comment section is open for any non-work-related discussion you’d like to have with other readers, by popular demand. (This one is truly no work and no school. If you have a work question, you can email it to me or post it in the work-related open thread on Fridays.)

You may also like:
{ 775 comments }

5 more updates from letter-writers

by Alison Green on December 19, 2015

Here are five updates from letter-writers who had their questions answered here this year.

1. Manager won’t promote me because I cried six years ago (#5 at the link)

I began interviewing for a new job almost as soon as I read your response. You were so right, so much water under the bridge and really, I had painted myself into a corner trying to solve things with that email…..really I should have just recognized how nutty his response was and not tried to change his mind! Can’t fix crazy, and while he is very effective at his job, this was not the first round of crazy from his office, according to the grapevine.

It was a year before I landed the job of my dreams, did a lot of resume polishing and interview rehearsal – and another year later and, in a few days, my promotion to a C-suite positiong will be official! I am in your debt.

2. My client constantly pesters me and micromanages my every move (first update here)

Things have continued in that vein (from the first update) ever since. I actually ended up legitimately getting a promotion at my in-house job, so I’m comfortably devoting most of my time to that and working just a few hours for my contract client each week. It’s a nice way to have some pin money, and now that I don’t have to rely on it as 50% of my income, it’s less stressful if a check is late. I also made it clear to the client that I would be devoting my time with them to the spreadsheet work I was hired for, and am no longer available for 24/7 phone calls since I’m at my office most of the day. In sum, it’s less stressful and things have been trucking along peacefully for several months now.

The advice I got from you and the commenters there really, really put things in perspective and helped me address things productively.

3. My coworkers constantly share their inappropriate, bigoted, and hostile views with me (#4 at the link)

I wrote in almost 2 years ago about my job. Since then, there have been a lot of organizational changes and the most disruptive people all left. It’s much quieter and calmer and I generally feel better about work. Additionally, I decided that I needed to make a plan to get out so that I have goals and things to look forward to. I got into graduate school and I’m working on a Master’s part time. I decided to stay at my job for various pragmatic reasons but I plan to leave as soon as I finish school. Thanks for all your advice; I think I’ve grown up a LOT in the last couple years.

Wishing you all the best!

4. Am I invited to this holiday party or not? (#7 at the link)

Turns out the party was cancelled last minute and was put on for another day. The reason I waited to update everyone is because I wanted to see what happened at the party and I am glad I did. Turns out my other coworkers gave our boss and a few other people gifts without even asking if I wanted to participate. In fact, when the coworker last spoke to me about it, she said she wasn’t going to be doing it. I just hope that it doesn’t reflect badly on me as it was very obvious that I didn’t contribute.

5. How can I ask whether I’m doing well enough at my new job?

This update will be fairly mundane, but I wanted to send it in case it provides hope for others recovering from bad workplace experiences. I’m still at the same job receiving favorable feedback, so it turns out that I was definitely good enough to not get fired! I updated a bit in the comments of the original letter about receiving good feedback, and finding out that I got through the training quickly and had just been quoted an inaccurate estimate for the time to complete their new training program (I originally worried that they were extending it because I was doing so poorly).

I’m happy to report that since that update, I have seen a few new coworkers struggle, and the manager and trainers worked very hard to help them succeed – they designed new training tasks, held feedback meetings, and so on, and most of them did succeed. At the time of writing, I honestly thought that it was the rule rather than the exception for employers to not bother with negative feedback until they had already decided to fire you and to fire for fairly minor things. (I also worked for a company that used the designed-to-fail PIP as a pre-firing measure under the advice of the head of HR, under a boss that went through receptionists like Murphy Brown until she found the perfect one, and at a staffing agency where we had to fire so many people who didn’t realize they weren’t doing well because the onsite management didn’t provide uncomfortable feedback.) I can confirm that the “Crappy workplace PTSD” a commenter described is very real, and I think I am over it after awhile in my new job. If anyone is having a horrible run of luck with work environments like I did, stay strong and keep looking, a better workplace is out there!

You may also like:
{ 14 comments }

3 more updates from letter-writers

by Alison Green on December 18, 2015

Here are three updates from letter-writers who had their questions answered here this year.

1. How can I tell my manager that I can’t drive on a business trip? (#2 at the link)

Emboldened by the support in the comments, I gathered up the courage to talk with Big Boss. I asked if she would be OK with driving since I had a medical issue that made it hard for me to drive. She said “sure, no problem” – asked no further questions, and that was easy as pie. Or so I thought. A month later, when we got to our destination, as we were waiting in line to pick up the car, perhaps just to make small talk, she asked me more about my medical issue. I was surprised she asked, but told her something I had thought of ahead of time. It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth. Truly, given how relaxed she was the first time I brought up the issue and how respectful she seemed in general, I was very surprised she went into the depth of my medical issue.

The kicker – she then said “I have a call scheduled in 15 minutes, so I was hoping you could drive this time and I’ll drive on the way back.” That was…not what I expected. But I didn’t quite know what to say, so I drove. And it was terrifying, but we made it there in one piece. I think I hid my anxiety fairly well. Luckily, small towns are relatively easy to drive in.

So, lessons learned? One, I should always listen to Alison and should have told Big Boss the whole truth and not expected her to read between the lines. Two, this was a good kick in the pants to return to therapy. I have my first appointment in January. And three, some people just can’t fathom not driving. When we got to our home airport, Big Boss literally said to me “OK, so you’re parked at the main lot right? Have a safe drive home!” No, lady. I do not own a car. I took a cab home.

Thanks to everyone who commented on the original thread, especially those who also have anxiety and those who have have overcome it. It meant a lot to hear your stories and advice. And I really do need to get better at telling people I don’t drive instead of being ashamed about it. I have lots of work to do in that regard, and I’m hopeful that therapy will help me figure it out.

2. Letting a prospective employer know I’ll be out of town when they might be conducting final interviews (#2 at the link)

I was a finalist for the job but ultimately they didn’t pick me, which really hurt. In happier news, I’ve continued job searching and recently accepted a position with one of my old employers. It’s not exciting but it’s more money and a place I know well with people I like. So that’s a happy ending, right?

I do truly appreciate you answering my question – I read the blog every single day and comment occasionally. The community is wonderful and I’ve learned so much – thank you!

3. My company asked me to write a review on Glassdoor (#2 at the link)

I never wrote the review, and that particular executive who had asked me to write the review left the company a few months later.

I hedged a little– it’s not the company I was pleased with, it’s my specific situation. I have some major issues with some of the attitudes and opinions expressed and portrayed by C-level management. The pay and benefits reflect this, but there are other gotchas coming from that layer.

However, it’s a very very specific situation: my job role is a teeny percent of a percent of all our employees, I was not a typical hire, and the work of my manager is what makes me so relaxed at work.

I am an “aptitude hire” for a programming job that I was not qualified for on paper (though I had done related work), and I am still excelling at it. A career move like that in one’s 40s is a fantastic gift. My immediate manager is everything you’d want a manager to be. The end result is that I am acquiring and using new skills like crazy, thriving, and have the fabled work-life equilibrium.

Thanks to dream manager and an office with a door, I am mostly insulated from office pettiness, politics, and executive shenanigans. Overall, it’s well worth the pay-off for me with respect to the salary and benefits.

I’ll skip any public reviews though.

You may also like:
{ 53 comments }

update: my government manager is thwarting public record laws by emailing things to my personal email account

by Alison Green on December 18, 2015

Remember the letter-writer who worked for a government agency subject to public records requests and whose manager’s manager was sending work emails to her personal Gmail account and asking that she respond only from her personal account, keeping it off the government servers? Here’s the update.

I can’t remember if I mentioned this in the original letter or in one of the comments, but the last straw for me was when my manager’s manager asked me to create a brand new separate Gmail account just for work purposes. That floored me, and I followed some of your reader’s advice, while considering the context of how our office works.

First, I forwarded all e-mails that were sent to my Gmail to my work email and then printed copies. I then asked my manager to schedule a meeting for her and I with our department’s legal team. She was very supportive of this, and was feeling uncomfortable with also being asked to use her personal Gmail and felt it was ridiculous that he would not honor the simple request of using work email for work. The meeting with our legal team was great. We outlined what was happening, shared what we had tried to communicate with him already, and just reiterated that we felt very uncomfortable with what we were being asked to do. She thanked us for letting her know and confirmed that our Gmail would still be subject to public records requests, and that trying to use Gmail to get around that was dumb. That afternoon, our boss got called into a meeting with the head of legal, and after that meeting it was never brought up again. So all in all it was a happy update!

Thanks again for running my questions. It was helpful to have the feedback from your readers that I was not being crazy and that this was a real issue. Without it, I don’t know if I would have felt comfortable pushing for that meeting with legal.

You may also like:
{ 36 comments }

all my 2015 book recommendations

by Alison Green on December 18, 2015

For most of 2015, I’ve made a weekly book recommendation when kicking off the weekend open thread. These aren’t work-related books; they’re just books I love and think everyone else should read. Sometimes they’re books that I’m in the middle of reading, and other times they’ve just long-standing favorites.

A few people asked to have them all compiled in one place, so here’s the complete list (possibly in time for holiday gift-shopping!). I’ve bolded my favorites of the favorites.

The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss. It’s beautiful and engrossing and charming and wonderful.

About Alice, by Calvin Trillin. It’s a warm, funny, and moving portrait of his wife, written five years after she died. If you’ve ever read any of his food writing (and you should!), you may remember Alice as a frequent character there. This is a really beautiful — and entertaining — tribute to her.

If you enjoy reading other people’s painfully embarrassing teenager love letters and diary entries, you need to read Mortified: Real Words, Real People, Real Pathetic. Stemming from the live stage show of the same name, it features hilarious real-life artifacts from adolescence and will make you cringe about your own. I think I cried from laughing at one point.

The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCullough. Yes, this is the book that led to the mini-series of the 80s, and that might turn you off. But come on, it’s a love story between a priest and the woman he’s adored her whole life. It’s tortured and epic and full of people and families being torn apart. It is magnificent.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke. Basically, picture Jane Austen but in a magical universe. I love this book more than I can convey.

One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories, by BJ Novak, who is also known to you as Ryan from The Office. It turns out he’s a fantastic writer. His short story about a woman on a date with a warlord is my favorite, but the whole collection is worthwhile: funny, quirky, and insightful.

The Love Song of Jonny Valentine by Teddy Wayne. This is the imagined inner life of a pre-teen idol with loads of tween fans, a stage mom, and an absent father. He’s far more compelling than you’d expect an 11-year-old to be.

The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern. I adore this book. It’s magical and engrossing, and you’ll feel like you’re living in a completely different world.

84, Charing Cross Road, by Helene Hanff. I love books that are told solely through letters, and this one is the author’s 20-year correspondence with a London bookseller. It’s about books, food, the war, and more. You should read it under a quilt with a cup of tea.

E: A Novel, by Matt Beaumont. It’s a highly amusing novel about the work life at a dysfunctional ad agency, told entirely through emails. It’s dark, funny, and vicious.

Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing. Journalist Ted Conover worked undercover as a prison guard at Sing Sing for a year and wrote about daily life for both guards and prisoners. Totally fascinating, and disturbing. If your favorite psychological experiment is the Stanford Prison Experiment (as it is mine), you will like this book.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, by Michael Chabon. This is a perfect book. I will tell you nothing else about it. Just read it.

Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, by Ben Mezrich, about a group of M.I.T. students who spent two years gaming Vegas and making millions of dollars. It’s weirdly engrossing and will make you want to learn to count cards and become filthy rich.

The Paying Guests, by Sarah Waters. I’m not going to spoil the story for you, but the descriptions of daily life in 1922 London are so vivid that I now feel like I have first-hand experience living in that time period. It’s won all kinds of awards, it’s fantastic, just read it.

How to Be a Victorian, by Ruth Goodman. This is fascinating. You will learn all about how to keep clean without water, how Victorian bathrooms worked (and didn’t work), what it’s like to brush your teeth with soot, and so much more. The author didn’t just research this stuff; she actually lived that way herself and then wrote about what it was like. Soooo interesting.

Mistress Masham’s Repose, by T.H. White, in which an orphan living with odious people discovers a whole community of Lilliputians (as in, those very small people from Gulliver’s Travels) living on an island near her house. I first read this when I was 9 or 10 but it’s a fully formed novel, not just a short kids’ story, and I’ve read it repeatedly as an adult because it is quite awesome.

Joseph Anton: A Memoir, by Salman Rushdie. If you always wondered what Salman Rushdie’s life was like during those years he was living in hiding because of the fatwah on his head (I constantly speculated about how it worked), this book will explain everything to you. It will also tell you what it’s like to be married to Padma from Top Chef.

The Pursuit of Love, by Nancy Mitford. I’m reading this right now and, eeek, it’s so good, how did I not read this earlier? It’s hilarious and beautifully written and perfect for reading under a bunch of blankets with a cup of tea.

The Children’s Crusade, by Ann Packer. If you’re into perfectly paced, messy family dramas (and you should be), this is for you.

Don’t Get Too Comfortable: The Indignities of Coach Class, The Torments of Low Thread Count, The Never- Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems, by the magnificent, hilarious, gone-too-soon David Rakoff.

I’m a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away. Brilliant and funny Bill Bryson tries to get reacquainted with America after living in England for 20 years.

Emma, by Jane Austen. Because it is the perfect book, and Mr. Knightley is a better love interest than Mr. Darcy.

Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides. It’s about a girl who grows into a man, but it’s also an epic and engrossing story of Greek-American immigration, the 60s, a family, and love.

The Fiddler in the Subway: The Story of the World-Class Violinist Who Played for Handouts. . . And Other Virtuoso Performances by America’s Foremost Feature Writer, by Gene Weingarten. This is a collection of essays by one of my favorite Washington Post writers, including one about the time he had virtuoso violinist Joshua Bell play in the D.C. subway for spare change, to see if anyone would notice his music. (Spoiler: Few people did.) Pretty much every essay in here leaves me with a lump in my throat; he has an incredible talent for finding beauty and profundity everywhere.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. It’s not a book; it’s a short and hilarious musical from Joss Whedon (of Buffy fame), starring Neil Patrick Harris as the evil yet lovesick villain and the fantastic Nathan Fillion (of Firefly) as the self-absorbed hero Captain Hammer. It is awesome.

A Man Called Ove: A Novel, by Fredrik Backman. You wouldn’t think a novel about a grumpy curmudgeon’s reign over a neighborhood would be so charming and uplifting, but oh it is.

Kitchens of the Great Midwest: A Novel, by J. Ryan Stradal. The culinary tastes of the midwest are practically a character in this funny and moving novel, which tells the story of food prodigy Eva Thorvald, born with a “once-in-a-generation palate.” I liked this description from Book Forum: “Fundamentally, it’s about what happens when opposing personalities coexist: those who bake with real butter versus those who don’t, those who obsess over heirloom tomatoes alongside those who don’t even know what they are.”

Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English, by Natasha Solomons. A German immigrant tries to become a proper English gentleman after World War II (including writing his own list of manners and customs to follow), which eventually turns into a quest to build a golf course (since English gentlemen must play golf). This book will make you feel cozy and in need of tea.

Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel. 20 years after a virus wiped out much of civilization, a small troupe of actors and musicians travels around what remains, with the motto “because survival is insufficient.” It’s full of flashbacks and characters who will haunt you, and there’s a comic book and a space station and it’s beautifully written.

The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri. This is from the author of Interpreter of Maldies, which won a Pulitzer, but I will boldly assert that this one is better. (Also, that was short stories and this is a novel, and in a literary street fight, the novel will always win.)

Apothecary Cocktails: Restorative Drinks from Yesterday and Today, which will teach you to drink and indulge in home remedies at the same time. Divided into chapters like Digestives and Other Curatives, Winter Warmers, Painkilling Libations, and Mood Enhancers, its drinks include delicious things like a rhubarb slushy, peppery fennel fizz, “corpse reviver,” and herbal sleep punch.

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, by Robin Sloan. An old bookstore, a mysterious book-related secret society, a puzzle, and so much intrigue! I’m two-thirds of the way through and loving it.

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, by Mary Roach. This will answer questions about life in space that you never knew you had, like how astronauts handle personal hygiene, sex, life in incredibly close quarters, and zero-gravity Coke dispensers.

The City & The City, by China Miéville. It’s ostensibly a detective story, but it’s really about two cities that exist in the same space. It’s a little noir and a little fantasy, neither of which is my usual reading, but I really loved it.

Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett. At a birthday party for a Japanese businessman with a world famous opera singer in attendance, a band of revolutionaries storm in and take hostages. Bonds develop, opera is sung, and things happen that you do not expect.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich. The author spent a year working a series of low-wage jobs (waitress, hotel maid, and household cleaning woman, among others) and wrote an insider’s account of each. It’s fascinating.

The Golem and the Jinni, by Helene Wecker. A woman made of clay and a man made of fire are marooned in 19th century New York. Surprising things happen.

Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened, by Allie Brosh. If you don’t already know Allie’s awesome blog, you should. The book is filled with more of the same — brilliant narratives about her childhood, her depression, her dogs, and more, all illustrated with the funniest drawings you’ve ever seen.

The Buccaneers, by Edith Wharton. If you only know Edith Wharton from being forced to read Ethan Frome in high school, this will change your opinion. Five wealthy American heiresses in the 1870s head to England to find British aristocrats to marry, because their money is too new for New York; it’s like Downton Abbey in book form.

Brick Lane, by Monica Ali. It’s the story of two Bangladeshi sisters, one in an arranged marriage in London and one in a “love marriage” in their Bangladeshi village, and I loved it.

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4, by Sue Townsend. This is the diary of angst-filled and unintentionally hilarious teen Adrian Mole, who is dealing with troubled parents, acne, and an enticing classmate. If you’ve never read this, you need to. Also, if if you like it, there are a bunch of sequels to read too.

The Family Fang: A Novel, by Kevin Wilson. If you like the dysfunctional family genre as much as I do and you want to read a book that feels inspired by a Wes Anderson movie, this is the book for you.

Straight Man, by Richard Russo. I’m currently halfway through this darkly hilarious tale of academic politics and quite amused.

Please note: This site is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. I make a commission if you use these links.

You may also like:
{ 136 comments }